[ASU] state of the union

[Fletcher Ziwoya]

Distinguished members and all,

For the past school year I have had the singular honor and pleasure 
(pressure?) of serving the august organization that is the ASU. Interacting 
with you all at this level has been a great experience and a learning 
process no classroom can ever teach. You made my presidency a very fun task 
to undertake. I will forever be indebted to my most excellent team: Vice 
President Zack, Secretary Bose, The Voice Aurelie, Treasurer Hamilton, 
Researcher Albert and Social Organizer Segun for allowing the cultivation 
of a spirit of group cohesion and sense of purpose. If my ASU presidency 
will be anything to remember it was because of this creative and 
industrious cabinet. As we, the current executive, look forward to retiring 
from this honorable task we would like to answer the question: what then is 
the state of the union now? Colleagues, the state of our union is at its 
strongest in years. Within the short time that we were at the helm of this 
great organization, we could not manage to achieve all the goals and fulfil 
all the promises made due to factors beyond our control. These, however, 
are some of what we feel have been our achievements over the past year: (i) 
together as a student organization we re-cultivated a team spirit that saw 
increased participation in events such as GB meetings, cooking and public 
performances (this spirit had died before we came into office leaving the 
then executives stressed and burned out), (ii) for the first time in years 
we saw an increase in registered (paid up) membership, (iii) as ASU we took 
an active role in intellectual activities such as conferences & 
presentations in addition to the usual social events that we have always 
had, (iv) as a union we have managed to re-attract the participation of 
non-African members (great Africanists who have been taking center role in 
most of our activities and, (v) we have managed to identify and secure 
external sponsorship to start soon. These triumphs, ladies and gentlemen, 
do not just happen. It takes effort to bring them about and once again I 
thank us all for working together to bring the union to where it is today. 
Because of the effort of each and every member, we have made our mark on 
the OU campus and in the Athens community. As we go to the polls in the 
next couple of weeks, it is my hope that we will elect leaders with a 
passion for the organization, leaders who know how ASU works and are ready 
to lead (on day one!!?). I wish us all well and may the African continent 
never lack courageous leaders to take its people to higher levels of 
development and prosperity.Once again, thank you all for allowing me to 
serve as your commander in chief in the past academic year.

Fletcher O.M. Ziwoya
President
PhD Student
Scripps College of Communication